VATICAN CITY, April 24: In a ceremony replete with solemnity and joy, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday accepted the Fisherman’s Ring and woollen pallium symbolizing his leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

Before 350,000 pilgrims and tens of millions of television viewers around the world, he sat in a great white chair with gold trim below a colourful tapestry of the Biblical miracle of the fish that hung from the balcony where his election was proclaimed last Tuesday.

The pope, who had appeared alternately calm and nervous, broke into his first full smile as Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, bestowed the ring to a riot of applause from the throngs in a sun-drenched Saint Peter’s Square.

It was the moment the pope formally assumed the stewardship of the Church, as the 264th successor to Saint Peter.

The pallium, a white tie-like garment bearing five red crosses, symbolizes the pope’s role as shepherd of God’s flock, and the Fisherman’s Ring, bearing an image of St Peter and his net, recalls when Jesus revealed his divinity to Peter in the Biblical miracle of the fish.

The two objects — the ring set in an open, gold-encrusted case and the pallium lying on a silver tray— had been borne in a solemn procession from St Peter’s tomb in the heart of the basilica where Benedict XVI paused in prayer before the start of the mass.

Pilgrims waved flags from many nations, especially the pope’s native Germany as well as the blue-and-white standard of his home region Bavaria, but also from other parts of the world.—AFP